A cook can cook...

..as Yan could. Could never understand how he could maintain such cheery facade while doing something as intense as cooking. Because when I cook I am nervous, petulant and focused. I find cooking deeply introspective and have had many realizations cooking many things, ranging from Palak paneer, Baigan bharta, Thai curries, Coconut stew, Mooli Parathas, Banana bread, Kheer, Pastas, Pulav, Sambhars, Steamed modaks, Gulab Jamuns, Masala bhindi and so many more things. I have come to an understanding that yours truly is a very snobbish cook and hardly follow a recipe as is. I like to organize my ingredients in the vicinity (a characteristic of organizing things similar to Jack Nicholson in As good as it gets) and and find chopping onions (finely) to be the most fulfilling task. I need a good knife or things become deeply unsatisfying and annoyance may rise. I do not particularly enjoy people advising me on how it should be done or modify some steps. My ego is most prominent while cooking.

I tried Penne Pasta in mint, basil and garlic sauce with sauteed corn and carrot. It was accompanied with caramalized onions and mushrooms. Whole things was then embellished with roasted peanuts and walnuts. Accompanying picture is not the very best visual illustration but presented nonetheless. If anyone is interested in the recipe, do ask me and would be happy to share and if I am happy at that moment, may invite you over for dinner as well. No. Just messing.

An End to Suffering by Pankaj Mishra

In middle of Pankaj Mishra's An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World and while not sure about the book's promises yet but realized that he is a stunning writer to be reading. He may sound masochistic at times but remains profound, if nothing more. And that would be an understatement about him. A very brief excerpt from the prologue below:

I had taken to Delhi my provincial ability to be quickly impressed, and a hunger for new adventures, possibilities of growth. In well-protected enclaves, there were libraries and bookshops, cultural sections of foreign embassies, film festivals and book readings. there were even- if you had the money and the confidence- a dozen five-star hotels. But these excitements were temporary- best possessed at a high level of wealth and security, and maintained beyond the first few minutes only if, after the new European film, you were returning in an air-conditioned car to house with high walls. For to emerge into a humid night from the pavement with the limbless beggars; to push and elbow then to watch with a foolish little twinge of privilege the stranded men at the bus stops, was to be robbed of the new and fragile sensations of the previous few hours; it was to have yet again a sense of hollowness of the city's promise and the mean anonymity of the lives it contained; it was to know the city as a setting not of pleasure but of work and struggle.

I guess, I will have a lot more to say about the author and the book when, once I calmly slide the bookmark in between the thin last page and the thick rear cover. More to follow. Hopeful.

Two movies and Shreyas Talpade

Been meaning to write about two movies that have been on my mind for past few months and after watching both the movies more than once I can assure you that they are worth all your time. They being: Nagesh Kukunoor's Iqbal and Shyam Benegal's Welcome to Sajjanpur. Only common factor between them is Shreyas Talpade (yes, both movies are really that different yet magnificently charming) who imho, is a very fine actor and have a feeling that Bollywood may not be giving him sufficient or right opportunities to exploit his true potential. I admit that it is my biased opinion. May be if Big B and King Khan decided to abandon the B-world there would be less greed from audience to see larger than life portrayals and movies. Trust me, I do not have anything against them but in my limited experience, I never got a sense that they are playing a certain character which is a part of the whole ensemble but it feels the exact opposite, its the character playing them. Something to the effect of: there is this whole movie on one side and there is this big star in it who is playing one major role in it, and that big the disconnect can be(exceptions might apply but haven't been convinced enough). In essence they always end up being larger than the characters they play. The best quip that I have heard about Shahrukh Khan is from Naseeruddin Shah: "I like Shahrukh but not his acting."

Back to Talpade, he played a teenager village boy from a poor family, Iqbal Khan whose grit and determination is only to play cricket and to shine in it as a fast pace bowler. At first, one may argue that one with such dismal background and in addition who is handicapped too (deaf and dumb), any aspiration seems unachievable or rather ambitious. But the way , story unfolds itself, and the way its crafted, it leaves you mesmerized, extremely moved and albeit convinced to a dream that every Indian boy carries (almost all), to play cricket and be part of that blue uniform team. Each role has its significance in the movie and so beautifully played so as to only embellish in such a way that his/her absence will render the ensemble unpolished.

In Welcome to Sajjanpur, Shreyas plays Mahadev Khuswaha, who makes his living, reading and writing letters of uneducated people of his village. And as the story unfolds, it takes many twists and turns and leaves you tickled at times while provoking to think at other times. Movie stays a light comedy throughout and yet manages to deliver some nuanced experiences and raises some deep issues of social fabric.,along the way. Shreyas's simpleton grin is unmatched for. And his personal moral struggle showcases many shades of honesty and dishonesty (sometimes) and his getting past with all that eventually to realize his dream to become a writer is a journey you wouldn't want to miss.

p.s: this post is written in a very haphazard and piecemeal manner so you might find some rubbish sentences and typos, please ignore, I plead.

Mohsin Hamid's Reluctant Fundamentalist

Browsing through books in library or bookstores can be a fulfilling activity and it can turn out to be bonus delight when you lay your hand on something and end up finishing it right there. Such that it does not linger on your mind later and the memory of it does not haunt you.

Something similar happened with Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist. It's a 200 odd pages book which thankfully I could finish in one sitting in roughly about 3 hours. I found the prose gentle, beautifully sensitive about the inner struggle of a person at places and never felt it whined for longer descriptions. You either relate, sympathize or simply understand the conflicting commotion he might be going through.

The story is about a young Pakistani man Changez and his growing turmoil in adapting to a full-fledged American way. He attends Princeton and goes on to join a prestigious firm where it is slowly leading him to immerse completely in to the American dream of wealth and success. His love affair happens to be with an American girl, Erica. Identity, perception of love in one's culture, turbulence in the process of belonging to your roots become even more intense because all this happens in the background of 9/11 attacks on US.

The sensitivity with which Hamid paints the love (or almost love or lack of) between Changez and Erica is elegant and beautifully sophisticated. His simmering anger over estrangement and victimization of identity that follows is felt throughout the story.

The story is moving and while being sympathetic to the catastrophe that hit America you are also made to see a viewpoint as an outsider from a country which may live in the wrath and growing animosity that would follow. This alternate viewpoint scurries over imperial capitalistic power and its serious repercussions and how it can dilute the sympathy on the other side of the line.

I would have loved to share few quotes from the book which made me move from mere glancing to finishing it but I do not have a copy of it with me but I found few reviews of the book online: here and here.